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Retailers: Best holiday shopping season since '10

A very tough year for retailers ended better than they could have ever expected.

Sales were up 5.5% during the November and December holiday shopping season, according to the National Retail Federation analysis of government data Friday. It's the biggest year-over-year gain since the economy was climbing out of the depths of the Great Recession in 2010.

An 11.5% gain in online shopping was a big driver of that increase. But online still only accounts for an estimated 20% of consumer purchases. Sales at traditional brick-and-mortar retailers rose a healthy 4.1% to push the industry to its best gain in seven years. Every sector of retail, other than sporting goods, posted improved sales.

The overall increase was much better than even the the trade group's best case scenario for the season, said Jack Kleinhenz, NRF chief economist. It had forecast of a rise of no more than 4%.

"This counters the image that retail is dying and is in an apocalyptic situation," he said.

The analysis reflected some sales figures from leading brick-and-mortar retailers, including Target(TGT), Kohl's(KSS), Macy's(M) and JCPenney(JCP), which all reported better-than-expected sales in the holiday shopping season.

"This industry continues to go through a transformation," Kleinhenz said. "Most firms are embracing both store sales and online. But online sales are still only a fraction of brick-and-mortar sales, and that will continue to be the case for many years. Consumers still need goods. They need to get them somewhere."